Salary cap for England's Premiership clubs to be increased to £4m

Thursday 3 January 2008 19.40 EST
First published on Thursday 3 January 2008 19.40 EST

The salary cap for England's top rugby union sides will be increased to £4m from next season. Premier Rugby, the umbrella organisation that represents the 12 Premiership clubs, is also setting up a new department to ensure that no one spends more on player wages than they are allowed to.

The current cap is just over £2.2m but a series of allowances, covering aspects such as large squad sizes and long-term injuries, can take the threshold up to £3.4m. The Premier Rugby board will later this month vote on a proposal to abolish the allowances and set a figure of £4m to cover everything. The salary cap was introduced nine years ago in an attempt to ensure that the Premiership remained an evenly contested tournament and did not turn into its football equivalent with two divisions in one. It has largely succeeded, although many believe it has not been observed by every club.

Simon Halliday, the Rugby Football Union councillor and a non-executive director at Bath, said in the Guardian last week that the cap had been widely flouted in the past. Halliday, a former England centre, added: "Bath have been at a massive disadvantage in recent years because it has stuck to the salary cap. Others have not. I know who has broken the rules and I probably know by how much. I do not propose to allow that to go on for much longer."

Premier Rugby is ready to act and is planning to create a new department and recruit an official to ensure that the cap, which covers perks and employers' national insurance contributions as well as wages, is not only scrupulously adhered to but is seen to be enforced.

"There is no question that the cap has been a success," said a Premier Rugby spokesman last night. "It has helped create the most hotly contested club competition going and the question was asked at a recent board meeting whether clubs wanted the scheme to continue. The answer was a unanimous yes, and there was also agreement that everyone had to stick to the cap.

"Extra resources are being made available to ensure that we are able to properly monitor spending on wages. We have had a system in place up to now, but from next season we will be able to investigate more thoroughly than we have been able to before. There is no evidence that clubs have overspent in the past, but scrutinising the cap is a job in itself and money will be made available for an appointment to be made."